Barmageddon: Law students sue when software fails

August 12, 2014
by Nigel Duara

Thousands of law students attempting to take the bar exam in 42 states got a nasty surprise: They couldn't upload their answers.

The designers of the bar exam software say they had compatibility issues between their hardware and servers, and their program was overloaded by the number of students.

Perhaps law students were the wrong crowd to anger. They filed lawsuits in California, Illinois and Washington state, and those attorneys are seeking to make the cases into a class-action suit against the software company, ExamSoft.

No one yet knows whether a student failed the bar because of the upload errors.

The students say they endured pain and suffering due to ExamSoft's error. The lawsuits claim that ExamSoft committed a breach of contract and was negligent in its duties.

Related Stories

(Phys.org) —A team of scientists who specialize in multiple-choice test assessment at Brock and Trent University's in Canada has conducted a study to find out if students could use Benford's law to help them pass multiple-choice ...

As the school year winds down and final exams loom, teachers may want to avoid reminding students of the bad consequences of failing a test because doing so could lead to lower scores, according to new research published ...

Sweaty-palmed and reciting facts over and over in their heads, the hordes of university and school students sitting down to exams this month will have precious little time to think about how their exam timetable was put together.

On the theory that a driver who knows when a red light will turn green is more relaxed and aware, vehicle manufacturer Audi is unveiling this week in Las Vegas a technology that enables vehicles to "read" traffic signals ...